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Chung Mong-Joon holds a news conference in Paris to launch his bid for FIFA presidency

Aug 20, 2015 Following the endorsement of Michel Platini by Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa of the Asian football confederation, South Korea’s Chung Mong-joon has formally launched his bid to run for FIFA presidency.

This was made known during a press conference in the French capital, Paris. During the conference, Chung Mong-joon, who is a fierce critic of outgoing president Sepp Blatter, reiterated his opinion over the Swiss involvement in the organization’s problems.

“FIFA is about football. But, it is more than a game, it is about governance”

He went on to express his dissatisfaction over the incumbent president’s approach to the scandals rocking the organization

“Today, FIFA is undergoing a profound crisis. Under these circumstances, the FIFA President should be a crisis manager and a reformer. He must be more than just a head of the technical department…It has pained me to witness the spectacle of the FIFA President being booed by fans at football stadiums everywhere. In 2011, when a European sports magazine conducted an opinion survey asking, “What do you think about FIFA President Joseph Blatter?” 95 percent said, “He is ruining football…Continuity is very important, but so is change.”

The 63-year-old billionaire, who is a controlling shareholder in South Korea’s Hyundai industrial conglomerate has been touted as one of the favorites for the job but faces stiff competition from UEFA’s head, Michal Platini.

The Asian businessman cum politician drove his point home by saying:

“In his resignation statement, President Blatter blamed the Executive Committee for blocking the reforms and later blamed the Confederations for corruption. The real reason FIFA has become such a corrupt organization is because the same person has been running it for 40 years. Absolute power corrupts absolutely… The core issue of the coming election is whether the 40 year old system of corruption should continue or not… Organizations begin to corrupt when the leader thinks he is indispensable. If I am elected, I will only serve one term, four years. I can change FIFA in four years. This is my pledge to all the football fans in the world.”

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